We made a second trip to kaikoura,as we came here at the start of our trip to see the whales but our trip got cancelled. We got lucky this time round. Kaikoura is apparently the only place where you can see the mountains and the sea together and it really is a beautiful site, and this time round we had lots of snow on the mountain tops. Sperm whales live in and around Kaikoura. We had all eyes peeled on the water for any sign of a whale. They track them down with...

There are two major glaciers on the west coast of the south Island. Fox glacier and Franz Joseph glacier and you can do walks on both of them. We did the Fox glacier as it was the quieter of the two. The glacier itself is massive, 13.5 Ks, and it is currently growing, although the glacier goes through phases of receding too. Apparently 'they' say it will nearly all be gone in 50 years but who knows. The glacier stands next to a rainforest......

We arrived in Queenstown, after travelling around New Zealand on long empty roads, entering Queenstown was like London in rush hour. Queenstown is packed full as it is the school holidays at the moment and everyone comes here skiing. We only just about found somewhere to stay. It's a pretty town but packed full of Ski shops and cosy little cafes with log fires. It rained the entire time we were there. Queenstown is supposed to be the adventure capital but ...

We stayed over night at Lake Tekapo in a brand new hostel right on the Lake with an excellent view. The next morning we went straight to Mount Cook to do one of the walks. We did the Hooker Valley walk, which took about 3 hours. Mount Cook was huge and you could spot glaciers on the mountain which stood out as a pure blue ice. We crossed over the river on a swing bridge, a long thin wooden bridge and beneath us was a freezing cold river thundering past. One area ...

While our car was in the garage we decided not to waste a day and we went up to Mt Hutt for a day of skiing. After a few goes on the magic carpet I decided I needed something a bit harder, so Chris came with me up to the next step on the beginners scale, it was a much longer steeper beginners slope. The chair lift was an adventure in itself! Anyway it didn't go too smoothly, I fell over quite a lot, twice I fell over the side of the boundary luckily it was still ...